Democrats shocked by incumbent have urged the US president to be transparent about his mental fitness as he faces calls from his own side to drop out of the election.
Some supporters have expressed growing doubts about the 81 year old after last week’s televised showdown with his , with Biden stumbling over his words and losing his train of thought — .
Lloyd Doggett on Tuesday became the first congressional Democrat to publicly call on Biden to make way for another candidate, saying he was hopeful the president would “make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw”.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was “legitimate” to ask whether Biden’s debate disaster was indicative of a deeper problem rather than a one-off — but that Trump should also face the same scrutiny.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday admitted the debate was “a bad night” but added that Biden “knows how to come back” from adversity.
She dismissed questions about him needing a cognitive test, and said the president would hold a press conference during a NATO summit in Washington next week.
Biden has blamed exhaustion from international travel for his debate flop.
While his withdrawal from the race to the White House is still a rather improbable scenario, the rumour mill is pumping out myriad possibilities as to who could replace him on the Democratic ticket.
These are the names being circulated.
Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris made history as the US’ first woman vice president. Source: AAP / Ronda Churchill/AP
She seems like the obvious choice.
US Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been a heartbeat away from the Oval Office since Biden’s January 2021 swearing-in, would be well positioned to be the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer.
The 59-year-old Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, is a trailblazer.
She was the first black person and the first woman to serve as California’s attorney-general, and then was the first US senator of South Asian descent.
During her career as a prosecutor, Harris had a reputation for being tough — a trait she could use to her advantage in a campaign expected to focus on crime and immigration.
Some progressive Democrats have been critical of her strict punishment of minor offenders, saying it disproportionately affected minorities.
Harris also suffers from a dismal approval rating, which could prompt Democrats to find another solution.
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom is currently the governor of California. Source: AAP / Jessica Christian/AP
There is no rule that a running mate automatically replaces the presidential candidate in the case of a withdrawal. This is why California governor Gavin Newsom’s name keeps popping up.
The 56-year-old Democrat, a former mayor of San Francisco, has been at the helm of the Golden State — the most populous in the US — for five years, and has made it a haven for abortion access.
So far, he has steadfastly supported Biden and dismissed talk of replacing him, saying in the wake of Biden’s dreadful debate performance last week against Donald Trump that such “conversations” are “unhelpful to our democracy”.
But Newsom has also made little secret of his own presidential ambitions.
In recent months, he has increased his international travel, run multiple ads touting his record, and invested millions of dollars in a political action committee, fuelling speculation that he will run in 2028. So why not 2024?
Gretchen Whitmer
Gretchen Whitmer is currently the governor of Michigan. Source: AAP / Al Goldis/AP
Another possible Democratic candidate is Gretchen Whitmer, the 52-year-old governor of Michigan.
Her state has both a strong working class population and major black and Arab-American communities — all key groups of voters that Biden has struggled to court.
Whitmer, a fierce critic of Trump, is perhaps best known for being the intended target of a kidnapping plot devised by a far-right militia group.
Michigan will be one of the crucial battleground states in the 5 November presidential election — a strong argument, according to her supporters, for naming Whitmer as a candidate.
Whitmer herself has dismissed speculation about any candidacy, saying Monday that she was “proud to support Joe Biden as our nominee”.
“I am behind him 100 per cent in the fight to defeat Donald Trump,” she said.
Josh Shapiro
Josh Shapiro is currently the governor of Pennsylvania. Source: AAP / Matt Rourke/AP
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro leads the biggest swing state in November’s race.
The 51-year-old, who was elected in November 2022 with a convincing victory over a conservative rival and took office in early 2023, was previously elected twice as the state’s attorney-general.
He condemned Catholic priests who had sexually abused thousands of children and prosecuted Purdue Pharma, the maker of the powerful opioid painkiller OxyContin.
Shapiro is an effective speechmaker and an avowed centrist — qualities that could propel him to seek national office.
The rest
Other names circulating include Illinois governor JB Pritzker, Maryland governor Wes Moore, and Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, but their chances so far seem limited at best.
Senator Amy Klobuchar and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who both ran against Biden in the 2020 primaries, have also been mentioned.
